This invention relates to mass-mailing equipment and more particularly to an envelope turnover device having utility, for example, in mechanisms wherein filled carrier envelopes are transported from an inverted position on an automatic inserting machine to a face-up position on a postage affixing machine.
In most inserting equipment in use today carrier envelopes are positioned with their faces down, flaps extended, and backs up, during insertion by an automatic inserting machine. As the envelopes leave the inserting machine, the flaps are moistened and sealed shut to the backs of the envelopes. At this point, the envelopes are still in face-down positions. Stamp affixing and postage metering machines, however, are normally designed to affix postage to the carrier envelopes when they are passed therethrough face-up with the top edges of the envelopes registered on a desired plane. Hence, it is an object of this invention to provide a device for turning an envelope over with its upper edge registered and front face positioned to accept postage from a standard postage machine of the type normally in use today.
A technique used by most mass mailers today is to gather the envelopes as they come out in the inserter machine; hand carry them to a receiving part of the postage machine; turn them over to be face-up by hand; and feed them into the postage machine. However, there are mechanical means of transporting the envelopes from the inserter to the postage machine and inverting them in route, but they are often complex, bulky, or difficult to maintain. Some such automatic envelope inverting devices use spiraled, or twisted, belts to hold and invert the envelopes, but a difficulty with these devices is that envelopes sometimes slip from between the belts when the device is operated at the high speeds necessary to accept outputs from some mailing inserters. An object of the invention about to be described, therefore, is to provide a device that can turn envelopes over at high speeds without the envelopes falling out or becoming misaligned.
Examples of prior-art, twisted belt turnover devices are found in U.S. Pat. Nos.: 2,947,406 to Hazelton; 3,280,995 to Barkley; 3,729,189 to Watson; 3,726,388 to Petrovas et al; and 3,838,771 to Whiteford.
Some of the current art inverting apparatus are long and take up a lot of floor space. They also require the presetting of guide troughs at entrances and exit apertures for different size articles or envelopes. A further object of this invention therefore is to provide a turnover device which requires a relatively short travel distance and which does not require the setting of guide troughs for different size articles.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a turnover device which is uncomplicated in structure but yet which maintains articles in proper registration for receiving postage when it turns them over.